Stuart Brown, host of the Broadway music radio program "On Broadway," reviews NYC and CT stage offerings as well as ruminating about other theatrical matters.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Review of "Finding Neverland"

There is a song in the middle of
Act II of the new musical, Finding
Neverland, the story of how playwright J.M. Barrie created Peter Pan, simply entitled “Play.”The show’s producer, Charles Frohman
(Kelsey Grammer), exhorts his troupe of actors to have fun with their roles,
not to be so serious if they want to connect with the audience.I only wish the creative team of Finding Neverland would have taken their
own advice.The musical too often lumbers
along with an earnestness that belies the nature of the show.The production can soar, as in the Act
I closer, “Stronger,” but that is more the exception then the rule.

Finding
Neverland tells the story of how the beloved play, Peter Pan, came into existence.Barrie (Matthew Morrison), a highly successful London
playwright at the turn of the twentieth century, is searching for inspiration
for a new show to write.Pressured
by his longtime producer; beautiful, but dispirited wife (Teal Wicks); and
others the writer’s creative spark is ignited by a chance meeting in the park
with four boys and their sickly, widowed mother, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Laura
Michelle Kelly).The boys are
rambunctious, full of energy and imagination.Barrie, who’s life is anything but exciting, immediately
takes to Ms. Davies and the children.Their frequent rendezvous leads the author to his breakthrough play even
though it takes a toll on his marriage and the health of the woman he now
admires and respects.

The book of Finding Neverland by James Graham, based on the movie of the same
name, moves the story along, but lacks any sustained dramatic tension.We never become seriously involved with
most of the characters.The show
mostly plods from scene to scene, rarely achieving hoped for magical heights.

The score by Gary Barlow and Eliot
Kennedy, two hugely popular artists in the United Kingdom, is a huge letdown
based on their previous chart successes.The songs fitfully spring to life, but only occasionally do they fly or hit
a tender chord.

The cast is uniformly good except
for Matthew Morrison as J.M. Barrie.He is overly solemn and somewhat stiff.His underlying joy is suppressed and, literally, hidden
behind a full facial beard.Kelsey
Grammer as Charles Frohman and Laura Michelle Kelly as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, however,
sparkle.Grammer, coming across a
bit like his frumpish, pompous “Frasier” television character, nonetheless,
commands the stage, has the best lines and enlivens the stage during a couple
of production numbers.Laura
Michelle Kelly is endearing and radiates an inner strength, which makes her the
emotional core of the musical.Carolee Carmello, as Ms. Davies’ mother, is sufficiently Victorian in
attitude and demeanor. The four children are energetic, hit their marks, and
sing competently, but they do not charm nor are they appealing as a group.

Director Diane Paulus, who has
worked magic with such recent Broadway musicals as the revival of Hair, The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Pippin, cannot salvage this one.She has the production come sporadically
to life and shows some real flourishes in certain scenes, but the overall
effect is a bumpy one.

Finding
Neverland, a show that should have enchanted but, instead, disappoints.